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First Customers

Jamie and I signed the first households to start piloting our service next week. These customers will help us refine our offering, and make sure we are providing a proper battery size.  We offered a range of products through retailers in Dar and a free subscription to our battery.

A few takeaways

First, the upfront cost of the lights, radios and mobile phone chargers didn’t turn out to be an issue with our customer base, despite us offering them at the relatively high retail price of small stores.

Second, communicating a temporary pilot service with no promise of continuity, with charging fees and with the households having to buy the lights and wires was surprisingly easy. We should be prepared for a different reaction for when the trial is over and the families have become used to having lighting in the house.

Finally, the social status boost from being the one household with lights can’t be overstated. The purchase process is a group effort with every available villager offering a perspective for the negotiated service. And for the next two months life revolves around the piloting households.

All in all, very promising results when reflected against some of the biggest questions we have going forward. One thing was very clear already now: the demand is there.

- Jukka

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 am and is filed under From the field. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “First Customers”

  1. Robert J. Sayre Says:
    August 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 am

    Congratulations, Jukka, Jamie, and team. What an awesome experience. Thanks for sharing. Seriously, you guys are inspiring. Keep up the great work and best wishes (please keep the photos coming too).

  2. PatF Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    I plan to vote for you at NAU, but i don’t see how you are recharging the batteries. Are you taking them to the grid and recharging, thereby incurring transportation costs to and from the village, or are you using solar-, wind-, and/or nuclear-generated electricity. Thanks. (A reply to my email will remind me to vote for you.)

  3. Ben Says:
    September 30th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    Sorry for the late reply! Right now we are bringing batteries to and from the grid. Please keep in mind though that:

    1) Often our sites will be extremely close to the grid. In some cases only minutes by foot. It is not uncommon in cities in developing countries for many citizens to be without electricity even when power lines pass right above their houses.

    2) Even with the cost of transport, we are still a much cheaper and cleaner alternative than the alternatives (ie kerosene).

    3) We plan on creating our own, clean charging stations as soon as feasible.

    Thanks for writing, and again, sorry for the delayed response!

    Cheers,
    Ben

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